PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 28, 2022
Last year was the warmest on record for the Gulf of Maine, with average sea surface temperatures shattering the previous high mark set during a massive “ocean heat wave” in 2012 that triggered green crab invasions, the starvation of puffin chicks and an early lobster shed. Surface temperatures in 2021 ran a staggering 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the highest deviation in the 40 years that satellite records of sea surface temperatures have been collected in the gulf. “The good news is that the future is still in our hands,” said David Reidmiller, director of David Reidmiller, director of GMRI’s Climate Research Center.. “If we are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a global scale, we will certainly be able to limit the changes we see in the future.”